Saint-Germain-des-Prés

Saint-Germain-des-Prés tickets: which one to buy

The church gives its name to the quarter around it and stands on the boulevard of the same name, opposite two of the most famous and most expensive cafes in Paris. Entry is free and there is nothing to book. Walking tours of the Left Bank include it as the starting point for the literary quarter, moving on to the squares behind, the art dealers' streets and the Luxembourg gardens; those tours are cheap and there are free ones that work on tips.

Concerts of sacred and chamber music are held in the church several evenings a week and are ticketed separately, usually sold at the door and online. If you are combining sights, the Delacroix museum is two minutes away in a courtyard and is small and excellent, and the Orsay is fifteen minutes north. The church closes for services, which are frequent, and photography is discouraged during them.

Visiting Saint-Germain-des-Prés: what to see

This is the oldest church in Paris, and the claim survives scrutiny. A Benedictine abbey was founded on the site in 558 by Childebert, son of Clovis, out in the meadows beyond the walls, and it became a centre of scholarship and manuscript production with a library of European importance. Vikings destroyed it, it was rebuilt, and it was renamed for Germain, a sixth-century bishop of Paris buried here along with several Merovingian kings. The present structure is largely eleventh and twelfth century, with some of the earliest flying buttresses in the region added in the 1160s.

The revolution destroyed nearly all the abbey buildings and the church became a parish. In the nineteenth century the interior was covered with painted decoration by Hippolyte Flandrin, a pupil of Ingres, and a restoration completed in 2020 cleaned the whole scheme, which had gone almost black; the result is a blaze of blue, gold and red that surprises everyone who remembers the church before. Part of the remains of the philosopher Rene Descartes lies in a side chapel, brought here after the revolution.

Saint-Germain-des-Prés opening hours and the best time to go

Mornings are quiet. The quarter fills from midday and stays busy until late, and the cafe terraces opposite are a tourist institution priced accordingly; the bars a few streets west cost half as much. Evening concerts are the best way to see the restored interior, since the painting is lit properly then. The church is open daily with a break on some mornings for services and is closed to visiting during Sunday mass. Paris in August is emptier of residents and fuller of visitors;

June and September are the best months. Christmas brings a heavy concert programme. The market street of Buci and the covered passage nearby are worth the detour for lunch, and the small square behind the church has a Picasso head of a woman set among the trees. Allow half an hour inside, and longer if the light is on the murals. A small chapel off the south aisle is kept for private prayer and stays open when the nave is in use.